Saturday, December 25, 2010

Holiday Highlights

Warning: Long post :)

I was cleaning off the camera tonight to get the Christmas pictures off and I found a few extras. So, I thought I'd recap some of the last few days and our holiday activities.

First of all, I started my Christmas shopping in September. I was close to being done by early November. I wanted to take December easy and enjoy the holidays. About a week and a half ago, I started with kidney pains. I spent a good 3-4 days in pain. It wasn't so bad that I had to go to the Doctor, but it definitely wasn't fun. I passed one large and about 3 small stones. Luckily once they passed, I felt just fine.

This week was Little Man's Christmas program, and Big Man's Christmas party at school. It was a fun week with lots of anticipation leading up to Christmas. Christmas Eve we had absolutely NO plans during the day so I spent the day cleaning, doing laundry, and baking. My house was absolutely spotless. It was a good (yet short-lived) feeling. While I was busy at work, Jeff had fun entertaining the kids. They were playing some music and dancing. It was pretty cute.







We spent Christmas Eve night at my parents house. My mom goes all out with party planning. We had a dinner theme of 'Around the World'. Everyone made a dish or two from different countries. After dinner, the kids told how people from that country celebrate Christmas. We played a few games, and did the pinata. We watched a video on the Savior and the kids wrote down one gift for they would give him this coming year. It's always good to remember the real reason of the season along with the other events. The final event of the night was opening gifts. I love watching kids open presents. Every time I would take a picture of Little Princess, she would tip her head and pose. What a nut.

Big Man got a Razor scooter. He was pretty excited when he opened it.
Little Man got lots of guns for Christmas. He was in heaven.
One of Little Princess's favorite gifts was dress-up clothes from her cousin. She wanted to wear them for the rest of the night. She kept saying 'I'm a princess'. I know I'm biased, but she does look like a princess. She's so cute.

We got home from the party right around 8. The kids were exhausted and went to sleep between 8:30-9. We gave them a big pep talk about staying in their bed until 7:00 a.m. I had visions of last year getting up in the 5:00 hour, but the first kid was saw this morning was Big Man. He came up at 7:10. It was so nice. We had to wake up the other two to go open presents.

The theme of this year's gifts for the boys was Legos and guns. They also got a ton of other fun stuff. So much for not spoiling them. Little Princess got a couple of Dora things, a piggy bank, a cleaning set, a tea party set, and other fun girl stuff. They had a great morning playing with toys.

In addition to all the Christmas festivities, the day wouldn't be complete without celebrating Big Man's birthday. We officially celebrate his birthday in the summer, but we try to make a big deal out of it on Christmas as well. I can't believe he's 6. Where has the time gone. I can't believe how much life has changed in the last 6 years since he joined our family. He's such a cute, bright, fun addition to our family. He continually amazes us in so many ways. Happy Birthday Big Man.

Big Man's biggest Christmas wish was for the Battle of Endor Lego set. He's been asking for it for about 6 months now. He didn't care that it was for ages 9 and up and had around 900 pieces. We couldn't resist, so that was his big Christmas gift. Jeff knew that he'd be the one assembling it. He was a good sport, it took several hours today to get it all put together. Here are the results.
Little Princess is at such a fun age. She loves imagining and playing. She got a cute little 'tea set', and this is one of the many 'tea parties' we had this afternoon.
We had a great Christmas. I feel very blessed and fortunate to have such a great family, and such cute kids :) I had a great time spending Christmas with them today.

Just after it started getting dark tonight, our doorbell rang. Little Man opened the door and yelled, 'there's a huge basket'. We brought it inside and read the letter inside the basket. It's called the Traveling Christmas Gift Basket. It was full of fun Christmas stuff, books, videos, games, and treats. The note said that we get to enjoy the basket for a full year, and then next Christmas we give a Traveling Gift Basket to someone else. I'd never heard of anything like this before, and I'm so honored that someone thought of our family. The note that came with the basket said that the purpose was to bring our family closer together by doing things as a family. What a great idea. I look forward to enjoying all the gifts and then paying it forward next year.

I've also been thinking for the last little while about some changes that I'd like to make for the New Year. 2011 is going to be full of LOTS of changes for our family. The biggest of which will be our new addition in 11 short weeks. Here's hoping for a happy, fun, productive year.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Best Concert in Town

This is our third annual Christmas Concert at the Riverton City Center. The first two years featured Big Man. This year was Little Man's turn. It's fun to see him growing up.


As always the lighting there is horrible. I tried every setting on my camera. This is one of the best I got. If you look close you can see Big Man wandering the place. He had trouble sitting still since it wasn't about him.

The kids had fun goofing around before the concert started.





Little Man is the one right next to the girl yelling :) I don't think he moved a muscle on this song.

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Merry Christmas From the Hansens

One of my favorite parts of Christmas is getting and sending Christmas cards. The years that I'm pregnant or just had a baby I'm not really in the mood to be photographed. This year I seriously thought about not doing Christmas cards, but in the end decided to. I did however cut my list way down. There are so many people that either see my pictures on my blog or on Facebook. So if you didn't get a card from us this year that may be why. Just know that we're still thinking of you :)

I tried forever to get the kids to cooperate for a picture, but Little Princess was being a stinker. This is the ONLY shot I got where one of them wasn't making a funny face, or Little Princess wasn't trying to escape. It turned out pretty cute though.

I can't believe how big they're getting. This last year they have grown up over night. Big Man loves Kindergarten. He's a really good student and very smart. It's fun to hear about what he's learning and doing at school. Little Man started preschool this year as well. He doesn't always tell me what he's learning, but things will come out when we're talking and I'll ask where he learned that. He'll proudly tell me 'at preschool'. He's a good big brother (most of the time) and has a lot of fun with his siblings. Little Princess amazes us with all she says and does. She's a smart little girl, and she has such a fun little personality. She's a good little helper and she's practicing to be a big sister with all her baby dolls.

Not much has changed for me this year. I continue to teach online classes for the Globe Education Network. It is the perfect job and I really enjoy what I do. I was released from cub scouts earlier this year and thrown into Gospel Doctrine. I am really enjoying studying and preparing for each lesson. Jeff is still doing real estate. The market is still slow, so that's been challenging. He also works with my brother selling optics on VIPoptics.com. He's the second counselor in the young men's presidency working with the teachers. He loves working with the youth and is making a positive difference in their lives.

We've been very blessed this year and will continue to be blessed next year with the addition of our new little girl in March. We have much to be grateful for. As we approach this Christmas season, we're grateful for the birth of our Savior and for all he has done in our lives. We wish all of you a Merry Christmas and the best the new year has to bring.

Jeff, Meggan, and family

Friday, December 17, 2010

Tis the Season...

Going to Temple Square to see the lights sounds fun, right? Well it probably is if you don't go on a Friday night right before Christmas. What a zoo. We rode Trax downtown. With the U basketball game, the David Archuleta concert, ballet, and Temple Square goers, it was PACKED.

It was a quick visit, but I think the kids enjoyed the lights and seeing the temple. Next year we'll plan it earlier in the year.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

We've got a bug...

We've caught a bug at our house-the NAUGHTY BUG. I'm about ready to sell three children for Christmas. Holy cow. Anyone else have naughty kids right before the holidays? I can't remember how they were last year, but these last few days have about done me in.

Little Princess had help making this mess, but the Kleenex box was all hers. This is the SECOND box of Kleenex she has destroyed. Of course they wait until I'm occupied elsewhere to make their moves. I was making phone calls this morning while this little destructive tornado passed through.

And don't let this sweet little smile fool you. There's a monster underneath all the cuteness. This may not look like a mess, but it turned into a big one. He started out making a spaceship on the stairs. It soon turned into a major detour from one level to the other, and we couldn't put anything away because it was part of the 'spaceship'.
In addition to these two minor messes, Little Man decided to terrorize the toy room. He dumped out every toy bucket into the crib and on the floor. When asked to clean them up he claimed that his brother and sister did it. He spent an hour and a half fighting it, but in the end he did clean up his mess. The next mess was while my visiting teachers were over today. He took a box of puzzles and games that had been relocated to the basement and dumped them out. This was much worse than all the toy buckets. Puzzles and games can't just be thrown back into a big pile, at least not if you want to play with them again. I'm all for the kids having fun, but I'm not for the destruction and senseless messes. The thing is they know better too. The rule is one thing out at a time, but that is obviously not happening. Maybe things will calm down after Christmas. Only then there will be more toys to mess up.

Saturday, December 4, 2010

The 4-year old strikes again

We've had tickets for the Festival of Trees for over a week now. A friend in our ward helps organize things for the festival and gets discount tickets. I've had them on my board waiting to go this weekend. Originally we were going to go Thursday night, but Thursday was a very long day, so we decided to go Friday afternoon after Little Princess woke up. While Little Princess was napping, I was making some phone calls, and Little Man came down and asked if he could hold the tickets. I told him no, I didn't want him to lose them. He took them anyway. After I got off the phone, I asked for them back, but he didn't get them. I asked several more times and by the time Little Princess woke up, he didn't know where they were. We looked for the tickets for 45 minutes with no success. I finally told the kids we couldn't go without the tickets. They were pretty upset, but what could we do.

As a last resort, I called my friend on her cell phone to see if there was any way we could still go without the tickets. She knew we'd bought them after all since we got them from her. She just laughed and told us to come find her and she'd stamp our hands.
I'm glad we were able to make it. The trees are all so beautiful. It was a fun family activity. As for Little Man, sometimes he makes me want to pull my hair out. He hasn't done something like this since he flushed my birthday money down the toilet. Good thing I love him and he's cute or he'd be in BIG trouble.

The rest of the weekend consisted of Ward Temple Night, a ward party, a friend's birthday party for the boys, and a Polar Express party at Grandma and Grandpa's house. It's been a busy, but fun weekend. December is always busy and crazy, but it's a great time of year.

Thursday, December 2, 2010

25 down, 15 to go

I have 3 friends who have all had their babies in the last few weeks. It's making me very jealous :) I am kind of glad that I will deliver in the spring. Hopefully all the cold, dark, gloomy weather will be over (for the most part), but sometimes that seems so far away.

I am 25 weeks and so far so good. I feel pretty good, other than tired and ornery a lot :) I have not had kidney stones with this pregnancy (knock on wood). I had one with Little Man at 19 weeks, and one with Little Princess at 25 weeks. She's very active when I lay down and actually relax. It's fun to feel those little movements.

Big Man suggests new name ideas for the baby everyday. Some of his favorites are Lila, Lily, and Ava. I can't remember the others. Little Princess keeps kissing my belly. Then she'll lift up her shirt so I can see her baby. What a nut.

Friday, November 26, 2010

Happy Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving. This year we spent the holiday with my family at my parent's home.

That morning, I decided to cut Little Princess's hair. It was getting pretty long (which wasn't a problem), but it's so uneven, and the ends were so thin. So I decided to even it up. I cut the boys hair all the time, but this is a bit different. She's very wiggly and has a short attention span so we had to work fast. Also, I didn't want the boys watching, so I had to wait until they were distracted. I can just see them trying it on her sometime without my help. I ended up taking off about an inch and a half. I didn't get any before pics, and the after pics don't show how cute it ended up. She's cute no matter what, but she looks all grown up.


After our Thanksgiving dinner we stayed at my parents and played games and visited. It was a great afternoon.

This year we didn't have much Black Friday shopping to do. Jeff went out to a few places, but for the most part we've just relaxed and hung out around the house today. I even read a book and took a nap. It's not often that we have a peaceful, relaxing day.

I hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving holiday. I have much to be thankful for. My family, my home, my health, my job, and so much more. I'm grateful for this time of year to reflect on all that I have been given.

Monday, November 22, 2010

Loving the Snow

We woke up yesterday to a foot or more or snow. It was crazy. We spent the morning clearing the walks, making a sledding hill on our rock pile, and building a snowman. I say 'we', but it was mostly Jeff and the boys. He's such a good dad and has such a fun time with his boys. Little Princess joined in the fun for a while, but got too cold and retired inside to watch Lala (Dora). I had to drag the boys in to eat lunch and get ready for church. This was one of the (only) days I was thankful for 1:00 church. After church a lot of the snow had melted. The snowman didn't survive-much to the boys disappointment.
Here's to a long, cold winter. Already looking forward to spring :)

Friday, November 19, 2010

A little early?

I usually wait until Thanksgiving to put up my tree, but tonight I decided to go for it. Jeff is at a young men campout, so me and the kids had a good time getting out the Christmas stuff. Little Princess is at such a fun age where everything is exciting and fun for her. It started with Halloween, and tonight she had fun putting ornaments on the tree. I had to rearrange most of them, but she tried. With every decoration she'd find, or every ornament she'd put on, she'd say "Happy Halloween". Every time I'd say, no Merry Christmas. Pretty soon, she'd say 'Happy Halloween, NO, Merry Christmas. It was funny. It's going to be a fun holiday.
The good news is, I usually take my tree down the day after Christmas, so it won't be up for too long. Hopefully it will stay decorated this year and the ornaments won't be rearranged.
I also took a picture of the nursery/toy room. Even with half of the toys out of there, I still can't keep it clean. If you look close there are tons of toys in the crib. It's the new play place. There's more work to do, but it's fun to have it started. It's a good thing we're having a girl because I got rid of all my boy bedding after Little Man. It just didn't quite make it.

Future Blackmail...

I always know when it's too quiet at my house that something is up. Big Man LOVES to dress up. This day he just happened to dress up as a girl. Awww, what cute little girls.

It's no wonder I can't keep up with the laundry at my house. They're always changing clothes.

Saturday, November 13, 2010

All the Single Ladies...

My boys love this song and sing it all the time. This week I have been a single parent while Jeff was hunting in Colorado. I definitely have a respect for single parents. I don't know how they do it all the time. A week was LONG ENOUGH for me.

Jeff got his deer Thursday morning and ended up coming home Friday night. I was excited because originally they were coming home on Sunday. The kids were so excited to see him. All they could do is hug him over and over. It was cute. Little Man has not left his side since he came home. He's definitely a daddy's boy.

I've had so many projects I've been working on this week and some of those created more messes (like the mailbox-read my other post if you don't know what I'm talking about). Jeff was kind enough to work on a few things for me today. I know he hates honey-do lists, but sometimes it's gotta happen. Jeff's never done brick work before, so he called his dad to come and help him. I'm happy to say that I have (what looks like) a brand-new mailbox. It actually looks better than it did before since it was falling apart and crumbly. It took them a while, but it looks great. I know that was not what he wanted to work on today, but I am very thankful.

The other big project I took on this week was painting our toy room. All four of our bedrooms are on the upper level. We've been using one of them as the toy room, but that will be the baby's room. Before it had blue on the bottom of the wall, and yellow on the top. Definitely not girl colors. To get it painted all the toys had to be rearranged. So while this project was underway, my upstairs looked like a disaster-toys were everywhere. I thought it would take two days, but it ended up taking four. I did taupe on the bottom of the wall, and a Plum color on top. Sounds simple, right? Well I sponged the top part of the wall. I'd never sponged anything before so I didn't realize how time consuming it would be. It looks really good. Once the painting was done, it took two days to organize toys and put things back. I boxed up some of the toys to go downstairs and moved the baby furniture up. Yes, I'm four months early, but it was fun to get it all set up. Besides the kids love playing in the crib. I'll post some pics later.

It's been a long week and I'm hoping this next week will be a little more relaxing. I've still got a few things on my to-do list, but no major projects.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Little Man's a Nut

Little Princess was trying to get a toy to work. She handed it to me and I told her it was out of batteries. Next thing I hear is Little Man telling her 'batteries are not included'. I burst out laughing and asked where he had heard that (knowing full well that he's seen too many commercials). He responded by saying 'Nick Jr. High'. I love that little dude.

Exped Mirror Strikes Again

We've had our Ford Expedition for about three years now, and we've had FOUR separate incidents with the mirror. The first one was my fault. I was backing out of the garage and got it too close. It bent back (which it's supposed to do), and broke several parts inside the mirror casing. Repair cost $85. Let me just mention that I got a bunch of crap about this little accident.

The second incident was when I was in labor with Little Princess. This time Jeff backed up a little too close to the edge of the garage. I don't remember what the repair cost was on this one. It was just nice that it was not my fault. It does make for a fun story though that while in labor leaving for the hospital at 3 a.m. Jeff hits the mirror.

The third incident was up in Boise. Jeff took the car through a car wash. I don't remember exactly what happened, but the car wash was at fault and ended up paying for it.

The final incident actually didn't ruin or hurt the mirror in any way, but there was damage. I always drive up to our mailbox which is at the far end of the driveway, get the mail, and then back up to go into the driveway. Well, as I was backing up, the mirror caught the edge of the mailbox. Instead of bending the mirror back (like it should-right) it moved the mailbox and took out the whole side of bricks surrounding it. I was a bit in shock, but the kids went crazy. They couldn't believe mom had 'destroyed' the mailbox.

So all I have to say to the Exped mirror is-let's be done!

Saturday, November 6, 2010

What a weekend...

Jeff is out of town this weekend deer hunting. It is his last deer hunt of the year-finally. I'm not quite sure why I'm more productive while he's gone, but this weekend has been busy and crazy.

Yesterday we bought a new kitchen table.
I've been looking on KSL for weeks and several really good deals have fallen through. So yesterday while I was in the middle of a small painting project, my mom called and told me about this one. It was up in Bountiful. I've found that for the really good deals, you have to act fast. So I stopped my project, grabbed my dad and his trailer and headed to Bountiful. I listed my old table on KSL last night and had a call about an hour later. A couple from Spanish Fork came up this morning and bought it. What a relief to get rid of it so fast.

So, after I sold my table I spent the morning cleaning the inside of my house. Because I had worked outside yesterday, the inside was destroyed. I even got the kids to cooperate and help clean up. It was great. I went to a friend's baby shower around lunchtime. It was a nice quiet break and yummy food.

After the shower, I had lots I wanted to do. The first thing on my list was to restain my deck. I've been wanting to do this for weeks and just haven't got around to it. This may sound like a big project, but it was really just touch up. Summer before last I spent endless hours staining the deck. It was all the tedious work of the railings, posts, etc. that took forever. Today I just went over the top boards that the stain had worn off. It took a while, but not too bad-and it looks great. Next I mowed the lawn and cleaned up leaves. I love fall, but I don't love leaves all over my lawn and in my gardens. I even swept out the gutter in front of my house. Yes, I'm obsessive, but it looks great.

You can see the deck and my nice lawn in this picture.
I fed the kids a quick dinner and then cleaned out the car that was destroyed during our trip to Bountiful yesterday. I'm always amazed at how quickly three little people can make such a big mess. The final two projects of the night were to clean up the toy room, and to clean my couch cushions. I got the kids to help with the toy room. Big Man was quite the little helper and organizer. It was fun to watch him.

My couches are microfiber and every couple of months they look pretty gross, so I use my green machine on them. In between all these projects I also sprayed the house for spiders and did the laundry. Needless to say, I'm exhausted.

I just wanted to document all of my hard work, because it doesn't happen very often. In fact I think I made up for three months of having no energy in one weekend. Good thing tomorrow is a day of rest because I'm sure I'll need it. Oh and I switched all the clocks tonight for tomorrow's time change. Can I just say I hate the time change. I used to love it before I had kids-an extra hour of sleep, right? Now the time change means a week of trying to get on a new schedule. I kept the kids up an extra hour hoping that tomorrow morning will go well. We'll see.

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Happy Halloween

I love seeing the holidays through my children's eyes. There's an excitement and enthusiasm that is just fun and contagious, especially as they get older. I always love fall and Halloween. My birthday is thrown in there to make October especially fun.

Our Halloween fun started last week. It continued this week with a parade and party at Little Man's preschool. I got to the school in time to watch the parade, except they went ahead and started early, so I missed it after all. I was kind of bummed, but Little Man had no idea. He was just thrilled with his bag of candy. I can't believe how big he's getting.

The next day was Big Man's school parade and class party. We have three different costumes for the boys, but they both chose to be Super Man at school. Throughout the last month, all of the costumes have been well worn.

I am the room mom for his class, so I was in charge of the party. I had a ton of help from a lot of the moms so it ended up being pretty easy. The kids had a good time. They were all so cute dressed up.

We've had our pumpkins for at least a month, but we didn't carve them until today. Little Princess enjoyed this the most. She was enthralled the whole time. Halloween has been fun with her this year.

I had to include this picture too. I don't know what they were doing, but I guess it was pretty funny.

By rights it should've been Jeff's turn to take them trick or treating this year, but I somehow ended up doing it. From about 3:00 on this afternoon it was cold and rainy, so we bundled up with tons of layers. The kids were so excited to go door to door and get candy. Little Princess had to go to every door with the boys, only she took twice as long. It was so cute to hear her say "Trick or Treat," only it sounds like "Trick or Pete". After a few houses, she would tell everyone "Happy Halloween." It may not sound cute, but you have to imagine her small little 2-year old voice. It was adorable.

At the end of the night the kids dumped out all their candy on the floor to look through it. They were so cute going through their candy, comparing piles, trading each other for some of their favorites, etc. Having kids definitely makes the holidays so much more fun. Next on to Thanksgiving and Christmas, two of my favorites. Oh and my Christmas shopping is pretty much done. Wahoo.

What really goes on...

I usually keep pretty good tabs on my kids, but during nap time my boys get have been up to trouble. It's not their nap time, but mine and Little Princess's. I have been so exhausted that I will lay down when she naps. I give the boys some rules: don't answer the phone or door, don't go outside, don't make a mess, and don't come bug me unless it's an emergency. They usually do pretty good, but sometimes I wake up to complete chaos.

The other day, I woke up to find our family room all set up for a birthday party for Little Man. He just had his birthday in September, but they didn't care. There were extra chairs set up and this gift bag full of presents. They were all toys from their room, treats, and a t-shirt. I love these boys. They are so creative and fun. Big Man also made him a birthday cake out of marshmallows and fruit snacks.

This next adventure is one I did not know about. Little Princess has played in the dryer before, but I didn't know the boys had. Here's their photo shoot.


The other morning we woke up to about 5 inches of snow. It was insane. Of course the kids had to be out playing in it all morning. It's so amazing the difference a year makes. Last year, Little Princess was too young to participate in most of the boy's activities. This year she won't be left out of anything. She looked pretty cute all bundled up.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

And another one gone...

I knew it was only a matter of time before his second top tooth came out. Today while we were in the car, Big Man said his tooth was "hanging by a thread". I told him when we got home we'd try and pull it out and surprise dad. When we got home we had a message that I had to reply to, so he got a tissue and pulled it out himself while I was on the phone. The little booger, I wanted to pull it out. He was pretty proud of himself, and he looks super cute with no teeth.

Saturday, October 23, 2010

33 Years and counting...

Today was my birthday. I am a 1/3 of a century. That sounds so old, right? Sometimes I feel that old. Other times, I still think I'm in my 20's. I had a great birthday. Jeff and I went out to dinner last night while the kids played at a friend's house. It was a fun night out.

Today we spent the morning in the Draper temple. My cousin Ashley got married. I'd only been to the Draper temple during the open house, so it was nice to go back. My cousin is young and in love. It was cute to see them so happy. The sealing was absolutely amazing. The sealer was so insightful and gave such a great lesson about what takes place in the temple and why. It was such a good refresher.

We were supposed to have a soccer game today for Big Man but it was raining pretty good, so we decided to skip it. I took a nice refreshing nap with no little kids bugging me. That was a treat. I wanted to take the kids to see the witches (at Gardner Village) today as well, but we're going to wait until it's warm and dry. We opted to go out to dinner with the kids before hitting my cousin's wedding reception. It was yummy. Joe Morley's is one of my favorites. I had to fight three kids for the mud pie. They thought it was pretty yummy too.

The reception was so beautiful. I thought we were only going to stay for a second, but the kids were having way too much fun.



This picture of Big Man cracks me up. The guest formed a circle around the bride and groom for their first dance together. Big Man sneaks over by this girl (one of the bride's friends I think) and before we know it he's holding her hand. We asked him about it later and he said she asked him if he wanted to hold her hand. He had the biggest grin on his face the whole time. We may be in for trouble :)






Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Halloween Fun

Tonight was our ward Halloween party. The kids have been trying on their costumes for weeks, but tonight they got to show them off. The party was fun. There were games, prizes, candy, and yummy desserts. They all had a good time.

Last night Big Man lost his 3rd tooth. It was barely hanging there, so pulling it out didn't take much effort. He was pretty excited to have it out. The one right next to it is loose too, so soon he'll have a big toothless grin. I can't believe how fast he's grow

Thursday, October 14, 2010

It's official: Boy 3, Girls 3

Looks like we'll be evening out the score in our family. The fourth and final Hansen child will join our family in March. My due date is March 17th, but I'm hoping for the first part of March since I always go two weeks early. We had our ultrasound this morning and it's a GIRL!!! Everything looks great. I am 18 weeks along and finally feeling pretty good.

We decided a while back (even before we got pregnant) that we would keep it a secret for a while. It sounded good in the beginning. From the moment I found out that I was pregnant, I felt awful. It's no fun being sick and having to put on a happy face. My mom told me I looked tired all the time, but she had no idea :) Around 10 weeks, I was ready to tell people, but Jeff still wanted to keep it a secret. I told him fine, but we were telling people at Little Man's birthday party the early part of September. He reluctantly agreed. At this point, my tummy was starting to get big and it was harder to hide it.

We had waited to tell the kids we were expecting until dinnertime the night of Little Man's party. They were excited, but it was kind of no big deal. We thought they would blurt the news as soon as everyone got there, but they didn't. When all of the adults were in the room, I asked Little Man if he wanted to share the news-he didn't. So Big Man says, 'My mom is going to have a baby." It was cute. Everyone was excited.

Even after we told family, it was kind of hard to just announce it to everyone I know. So if you didn't know before now that may be why. I did go ahead and tell my Gospel Doctrine class the first time I taught. I wanted them to understand why I wouldn't be able to remember anyone's name (pregnancy brain). I wanted to wait and announce it online after our ultrasound.

We're excited. I think it's going to take Jeff a while to get used to the thought of having two girls. He already thinks Little Princess is emotional and dramatic :) Now we'll have to times that by two. The best part is I get to use all my cute little girl clothes and bows and dresses again. Little Princess grew so fast that she didn't stay in some of her stuff for very long. The other good news is that now I can get of all my boy baby clothes. That'll clean out half of my attic.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Kids say and do the darndest things...

I sometimes wish I wrote down all the funny things my kids say. Sometimes I remember, but other times I don't. Here's a few that I do remember.

Little Man: Mom, Dad just took a haircut, he needs you to come and see if it looks great.
Little Man: (after telling him that Grandpa was going to the temple) He's probably going to see Jesus.

Little Princess's favorite things to say now are 'nowhere' and 'because'.
Me to LP: where is such and such? Nowhere.
Me to LP: why did you do that? Because.
She's only two and got an attitude.

Kindergarten has been a great success so far. Every day Big Man comes home and converts a part of our house into something they've done at school. We have different 'centers' set up all over the place. While I was resting one day, he took all the bingo cards (that I was going to use for his Halloween party) and taped them around the house. It's just like 'write the room' that they do in school. I love that he's learning and having fun at school. I just wish it involved less tape and mess on my house :)

Every day my kids amaze me and make me laugh. I love learning and growing with them.

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Happy Birthday Little Princess

Warning: this post is EXTREMELY biased. If you don't care, read on. I just have to say that I have the most beautiful, adorable little girl in the world. She doesn't officially turn two until tomorrow, but we had a party for her tonight. She was so excited all day long. For church, I decided to curl her hair with foam rollers. It turned out so cute. I've got to take advantage of it while she'll still let me do her hair :)

Let the party begin. She was so wound up all afternoon. I've never seen her so wild and crazy.
She had LOTS of help unwrapping presents. Her brothers had a really hard time not doing it themselves.
She loved that we were singing to her. It's crazy the difference a year makes.

I love my Little Princess and feel like the luckiest mom in the world. I love having a little girl that I can dress up in frilly clothes and curl her hair. Her cute little voice, fun little giggle, and precious smile just melt your heart. It's been a fun two years with her in our family. We love you Little Princess.

Today was also my first lesson in gospel doctrine. It went rather well. Sacrament meeting went over and the bishop took the first 5+ minutes of class explaining the new Duty to God, so I didn't have a lot of time for the lesson. I was kind of nervous, but had a good time. I of course learned more than anyone in the class did.

I also was asked to be a room mom in Big Man's class. The first event is the Halloween party. I've already got it all planned out.I think it will be fun to be involved and see him in his class. He talks about what they do and the friends he has, so now I can actually see it all. Wish me luck.